Thursday, July 21, 2011

Seers State Slaying's Source

As members of the Chosen People, we believe that we were put on this earth to be a light unto the nations. That light burned brightly this past week as all segments of Jewry combined to assist in locating the missing child, and subsequently, the perpetrator.

What puzzles me is how various Rabbis are privy to the cause of such tragic events. Of course we know that there is a master running the world, with a master plan that eludes us, yet how does one pinpoint the cause unless he has a direct hotline to the heavens?

Is it because of Tzniyus? Is it because of same-gender marriage approval? Is it because of cell phones and TXTing? Or perhaps the Internet caused it. I guess we'll never know until we meet Leiby HY"D.

In any case, let me don my Seer's hat and look into my crystal ball.

Aha! I see it! It is because we have become news junkies. Up until a decade ago, we perhaps purchased a newspaper once in a while, or turned on the radio here and there. Nowadays, we insist on having news alerts and email all forwarded to our I-devices. We don't check in "two, three, four times a day". We check in constantly. We have a panic attack if we leave our I-device at home.

This sickness might be what brought about such a punishment. We were thrown into the limelight; our community made page one headlines around the country and the world. Every few hours were new updates and yet it was all for naught. We did not emerge unscathed.

I sometimes wonder how Beis Medrash Bochurim are able to learn nowadays in the TXTing age.

3 comments:

If you feel that way so stop being a news junkie. Just don't presume to analyze a pan-societal problem.

Here's what I wrote elsewhere about one darshins analysis that it had to do with the tepid protests against the marriage equality bill:

I... have to say that I watched and read this with car-wreck fascination and, against my will, have to hand it to the darshin for at least showing some creativity and originality in his abuse of the concept midah-k'neged-midah. In particular, his association of the thousands who searched for Leiby to the thousands who , to his mind, should've taken to the streets to protest the marriage equality bill, smacks of the famous Khazal of those who don't deliver their t'rumos to the kohen having to seek out the kohen to try their wives suspected of adultery. This is IMO actually a more kishrondik, mildly poetic attempt to see the poetic Justice of midah-k'neged-mida than many of the more ham-handed ones I've heard of or read of lately

What is vile and disgusting is his hedge about not being able to know ALL of G-d's reasons vs. being capable of discerning SOME of them. This is cagey but informed-by-hubris and a total and unseemly lack of humility. What he is AAMOF saying is borne out by the Rambam in the first three Halakhos of Hilkhos Taanis. However for a scholar of his minimal stature to "darshin" a cause and effect, especially as he is a one-note-Johnny who sees only one root cause for ALL of our evils, is egomania and untrammeled hubris. It makes him a clownish Al Sharpton-like figure.

As for that Rambam, in our weak generation methinks it is best fulfilled by each individual introspecting whenever a Tzurah of any kind befalls us and cleaning up their own act. On a personal, individual basis we all know what we need to change and improve. We also more or less know what we need to improve as a tzibur/ society. So let's just start doing it and stop looking for Divine signs to guide us. One needs to be careful not to damn G-d with faint praise. One also needs to be careful not to paint G-d , kholila, as corrupt and inequitable, with faint poetic justice.Yesterday, 10:41:41 PM

Please forgive me and feel free to edit if you think that this violates your LH free zone.